Photos: 2013 Tribune Dining Awards

CaptionChris Nugent -- Chef of the year

Alex Garcia/Chicago Tribune

Our first Dining Awards included a nod to Les Nomades, and the "contemporary verve" brought to the menu by its young cuisinier. That chef, Chris Nugent, and his contemporary verve can be found these days on Lawrence Avenue, where he and his wife, Nina, opened Goosefoot a little more than a year ago. A strongly personal restaurant, Goosefoot was designed by the Nugents, decorated with art the couple acquired on their European honeymoon, and even opened on a date honoring Nugent's departed older brother. To keep the experience relatively affordable (the set menu is nine courses, priced at $115), they went the BYO route. It apparently works — reservations at this 34-seat restaurant are exceedingly hard to get. But the real draw, of course, is Nugent's cooking, which features precise, uncommonly beautiful plates that celebrate life and nature and all growing things — particularly members of the goosefoot plant family, which embraces Chioggia beets, epazote, quinoa, various spinach varieties, Swiss chard and more, much of it grown by the Nugents themselves. Even the menu is printed on ready-to-plant seed paper, so that the mere act of dining here presents the opportunity for growth and new life. I experienced a lot of extraordinary chef work this year, but Nugent's food stood out. Goosefoot, 2656 W. Lawrence Ave., Chicago; 773-942-7547 — Phil Vettel

Our first Dining Awards included a nod to Les Nomades, and the "contemporary verve" brought to the menu by its young cuisinier. That chef, Chris Nugent, and his contemporary verve can be found these days on Lawrence Avenue, where he and his wife, Nina, opened Goosefoot a little more than a year ago. A strongly personal restaurant, Goosefoot was designed by the Nugents, decorated with art the couple acquired on their European honeymoon, and even opened on a date honoring Nugent's departed older brother. To keep the experience relatively affordable (the set menu is nine courses, priced at $115), they went the BYO route. It apparently works — reservations at this 34-seat restaurant are exceedingly hard to get. But the real draw, of course, is Nugent's cooking, which features precise, uncommonly beautiful plates that celebrate life and nature and all growing things — particularly members of the goosefoot plant family, which embraces Chioggia beets, epazote, quinoa, various spinach varieties, Swiss chard and more, much of it grown by the Nugents themselves. Even the menu is printed on ready-to-plant seed paper, so that the mere act of dining here presents the opportunity for growth and new life. I experienced a lot of extraordinary chef work this year, but Nugent's food stood out. Goosefoot, 2656 W. Lawrence Ave., Chicago; 773-942-7547 — Phil Vettel (Alex Garcia/Chicago Tribune)

Balena's Peter Becker and Amanda Rockman are two faces in an unjustly anonymous position, that of the baker and pastry chef. First, the baker: I recall seeing "Peter's Bread" on Balena's menu and wondered who Peter was. The answer is Peter Becker, and this told me: 1) There was a dedicated bread-maker on site, and 2) By putting his name out there, the restaurant conveys, "We're proud of our kid Peter, and no, we don't believe bread should be an afterthought." For $6, Peter's Bread is an adventure of the tangents possible with yeast, flour and water — tomato water crostini, lemon-pepper challah or a savory milk jam of Gorgonzola, white pepper and caraway. With pastry chef Amanda Rockman, who like Becker splits time between Balena and The Bristol, the word sophistication comes to mind. We've seen dessert programs in the city push the boundaries toward the Salvador Dali School of Plating. But Rockman, a Tru and L2O alumna, approaches her dishes with a gently playful, classically composed eye. She takes a don't-think-twice idea of coffee and doughnuts and turns it into, arguably, Chicago's most buzzed-about dessert: Cinnamon-sugared affogato, cumulus cloud-fluffy doughnuts with a thick and assertive espresso chaser. The Texas native makes ice cream sundae not so obligatory by reimagining it as elements of a blueberry pie. While I'm a fan of chef Chris Pandel's cooking, it's the bookends at Balena that remain vivid and indelible. Balena, 1633 N. Halsted St., Chicago; 312-867-3888 — Kevin Pang

Balena's Peter Becker and Amanda Rockman are two faces in an unjustly anonymous position, that of the baker and pastry chef. First, the baker: I recall seeing "Peter's Bread" on Balena's menu and wondered who Peter was. The answer is Peter Becker, and this told me: 1) There was a dedicated bread-maker on site, and 2) By putting his name out there, the restaurant conveys, "We're proud of our kid Peter, and no, we don't believe bread should be an afterthought." For $6, Peter's Bread is an adventure of the tangents possible with yeast, flour and water — tomato water crostini, lemon-pepper challah or a savory milk jam of Gorgonzola, white pepper and caraway. With pastry chef Amanda Rockman, who like Becker splits time between Balena and The Bristol, the word sophistication comes to mind. We've seen dessert programs in the city push the boundaries toward the Salvador Dali School of Plating. But Rockman, a Tru and L2O alumna, approaches her dishes with a gently playful, classically composed eye. She takes a don't-think-twice idea of coffee and doughnuts and turns it into, arguably, Chicago's most buzzed-about dessert: Cinnamon-sugared affogato, cumulus cloud-fluffy doughnuts with a thick and assertive espresso chaser. The Texas native makes ice cream sundae not so obligatory by reimagining it as elements of a blueberry pie. While I'm a fan of chef Chris Pandel's cooking, it's the bookends at Balena that remain vivid and indelible. Balena, 1633 N. Halsted St., Chicago; 312-867-3888 — Kevin Pang (Alex Garcia/Chicago Tribune)

This marks our third annual Chicago Tribune Dining Awards, and we are thrilled to announce the winners. In revisiting the places and personalities, we're reminded of how Chicago won't likely shed its workaday, humble spirit. What we're saying is in choosing the winners, we (and our stomachs) are very proud to call Chicago home.